Creator_vs._Creation_in_Frankenstein

Within the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, she portrays Victor Frankenstein as a person with strong desire for power. Not political power or power of wealth, but power over another person. Along with the want to be able to control another person, Victor also wanted the power of knowledge. Not just any knowledge, but the knowledge to the secret of life, the knowledge behind the power of what makes living things live. After several years of education in Science, Victor succeeds in discovering the secret after making weird chemicals and reanimating stolen body parts to create a monstrous creature. So it seems if Victor has also succeeded in his desire for power, or has he' Many scenes in Frankenstein depict the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, in a scene where both take the role of what might be called the “master” and the “slave” in their struggle for power over one another. From their first meeting right after the monster’s reanimation, the novel depicts a struggle for power between creator and creation. The first scene with Frankenstein and his creation is possibly the first time a “master” and “slave” relationship is shared between the two characters in the novel. In the chapter of the creature’s creation, Victor is alone with the progress of his work so far. Even with the body of the creature inanimate, it is clear to see Victor playing this role of master. Without Victor, the body would remain without life, worthless and dead. The body needed Victor for its existence of life itself. Victor eventually performs the “masterful” act of performing the power of adding a life force into the motionless, dead body. Victor grants his slave, the creature, an opportunity to live. He even views himself as the creature’s master when he states, “I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet” (Frankenstein, 60). So at this point in the novel, Victor holds the power in the relationship between himself and his creation, but that power doesn’t last. Victor starts to lose his power over his creation when he somewhat “releases” his creation after he runs away from it in horror. Victor’s creation then starts to take power after killing Victor’s brother, William. This action has then caused the creation to effectively take something from Victor, something only a person with power could do. After this, Victor imagines his creation is forever gone from his life, but the moment the creature learns his creator’s name, the power among the two characters shifts to a balance. Victor’s motive was to create and preserve life, while the creature’s was to take and destroy it. Now the creature starts taking the role of the master while Victor submits to the creature’s power. Victor used to stand over his lifeless creation, now that creation stands over its lifeless creator. Victor is physically inferior to his monster, since it stands at eight feet tall, and he can’t prevent its actions through force. Victor continues to lose power as his creation continues to destroy Victor’s life by killing the people close to Victor. Victor loses so much power that he is driven to death by revenge that fell over him while trying to find the creation to destroy it. Victor tried to play “God” and create life. Victor tried to gain the ultimate power of knowledge and the somehow satisfying power of controlling someone else. In the end, Victor never actually gained any power, he only gained knowledge and new life experiences. But, he lost everything, he lost his whole family and the life of which he lived. In creating another life force, Victor lost his life and lost whatever power he had. Work Cited Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.